BG Medicine to Conduct Joint Biomarker Discovery Study with Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation

BG Medicine Inc. has announced a collaborative preclinical research study into the biochemical origins of muscle toxicity and associated biomarkers with Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation, (Osaka, Japan).

BG Medicine (BGM) will apply their proprietary, integrated systems approach based on proteomics, metabolomics and computational analyses to describe the molecular effects of selected lipid lowering agents on skeletal muscle and to identify specific plasma biomarkers of these effects. Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation will contribute transcript, clinical chemistry and histopathology data to the effort.

Muscle toxicity in lipid - lowering agents, a common adverse effect of these agents, covers a broad spectrum from mild and transient muscle pain to the extremely rare but serious acute muscle destruction.

"This exciting project uses BG Medicine's commercial systems toxicology platform to characterize and compare the molecular effects of two lipid lowering compounds at the dosages in which histopathological changes in muscle were observed in some animals", said Pieter Muntendam, MD, President and CEO of BG Medicine. "In this context it is a great example of how systems toxicology and pharmacology provide early insightful biology for pertinent drug development decisions."

Under this agreement BG Medicine and Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation will jointly own certain rights to the project data and biomarkers.